Court orders release of suspect in police custody without trial

THE Delta State High Court sitting at Court No.1, Otor-Udu has ordered the immediate release of Mr Momotimi Olioku who has been in custody of the IGP Intelligence Response Team eight months without being charged to court for any offence.

The presiding judge of the court, Justice (Mrs) C. E. Achilefu, gave the verdict upon a motion filed by the applicant’s counsel, Oghenejabor IKIMI, ESQ., under the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009 in Suit No: OUHC/66/2018 Between MR. MOMOTIMI OLIOKU VS. IGP & 3 ORS.

Ikimi had prayed the court for an order granting bail to the applicant and/or releasing him from detention and custody of the respondents at the cell of the State CID, Benin City, Edo State.

He also requested in the alternative that the applicants be granted bail from anywhere he’s being held or be produced in Court on the return date of the Suitor as the court deems fit.

Ikimi has brought the applicant’s prayer under Order IV Rule 4c, i, ii, iii and v of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009.

Delivering the judgment on July 26, Justice Achilefu “ordered that the Applicant is released forthwith from detention and custody of the Respondents at the cell of the State CID, Benin-City, Edo State or anywhere the Applicant is being held.

“Alternatively it is hereby ordered that the Respondents should produce the Applicant in Court on the return date of this suit. The case is adjourned to 10/10/2018 for the mention.”

It will be recalled that the suspect/applicant, Mr Olioku, was arrested by operatives of the IGP Intelligence Response Team at Ufuoma Street, Off DSC Expressway in Ovwian Town, Delta State on the 7th day of November 2017.

He was picked up along five other suspects and were taken to the State CID, Ikeja, Lagos, where they were detained until Mr Olioku and another suspect was transferred to the State CID, Benin-City, Edo State without charging them to court.

The other four suspects, it was learnt, were later released by the IGP Intelligence Response Team at the State CID, Ikeja, Lagos upon various terms.

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Tribune Online gathered that when the relatives of Mr Olioku turned down the request by operatives of the IGP Intelligence Response Team led by one Supol Philip and his assistant Supol Goodluck to negotiate the bail of the suspect, he was transferred to the cell of the State CID, Benin-City, Edo State.

It was gathered that at the State CID, Benin-City, Edo State, the operatives of the IGP Intelligence Response Team allegedly demanded N2, 000, 000. 00 before the suspect could be released on police bail.

The family of the suspect reportedly declined the police request, leading to the legal suit at the court.

Ikimi, who’s the executive director of the Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged (CENTREP), urged the Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, to obey the court order since the police could not establish any infraction against the suspect eight MO this after his unlawful arrest and detention.